


A Child of the Fallen

by HarkaSun



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Wants Children, Deleted Scenes, Fluff, Isabelle Lightwood is The Competent One, Jace and Clary are kind of just there, M/M, Magnus Bane Delivers a Baby, No Actual Description of Childbirth, Non-Explicit Childbirth, Out of the Room POV, POV Alternating, Protective Alec Lightwood, Season 2, This is about Malec
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24504277
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarkaSun/pseuds/HarkaSun
Summary: Early in their relationship, Magnus and Alec settle down for a night in together, interrupted when Magnus receives a phone call from a woman at Iris's abandoned house. The group gather for a warlock birth.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 5
Kudos: 120





	A Child of the Fallen

**Author's Note:**

> So, I realised that I can just write deleted scenes, and nothing has struck me more than the fact that they deleted a scene with Magnus delivering a warlock child. The audacity. So, here's my take on it.

Any moment of peace is rare, and rarer still that it goes uninterrupted.

Magnus has barely sat down. Everything has been up in the air lately. Magnus has handed Camille in to The Clave. Jocelyn is gone and Clary is grief-stricken, while Alec is just ridden with guilt. It has been a difficult time trying to get Alec to accept that being possessed isn’t something that can be fought.

They had been on their first proper date yesterday, just a few drinks at a bar. When they got back, Alec had told him it didn’t matter how many people Magnus had been with before. They were here now. Jace is in a room next door, but Alec doesn’t seem to mind. He had asked Magnus if they could watch a film together this evening, something mundane to calm them after the hectic time recently. Magnus had agreed happily.

It seems better now. Alec has stopped hurting himself at least, stopped beating himself up about Jocelyn’s death. Magnus has pushed all thoughts of Camille to the back of his mind. Really, neither of them are alright. Magnus hopes they might be eventually.

“Long day?”

Magnus huffs softly, giving Alec a brief smile as he sits. “You have no idea.” He sheds his jackets, slings it over the back of the sofa, glances to the decanter on the table. “You want a drink?”

“No, hey,” says Alec, catching his hand before he can get to his feet. “Come on, you just sat down. I want…” He takes a breath. “We’ve been through some stuff lately… I want to make sure you’re okay before something else happens.”

Magnus chuckles, shakes his head. “You make it sound so ominous, Alexander.”

Alec shrugs one shoulder. “Well, ever since Clary got here it’s just been one crazy thing after another. You got dragged into it all somehow.”

Magnus opens his mouth to chide the shadowhunter, to tell him this isn’t Clary’s fault, that none of it is, and that he is aware Alec knows this and he’s teasing, but he shouldn’t. His phone rings before he gets the chance, an insistent trill and, with a soft sigh, Magnus takes it out. He is planning on rejecting the call, but—upon seeing the caller ID on screen—he accepts immediately.

“Are you okay?” he asks into the phone.

“Magnus, what is it?” Alec asks anxiously, but Magnus is focused on the voice in his ear, his eyes wide at what he hears.

“Alright, you stay right there. I’m coming right now. Stay there.” He hangs up, stands. “Alexander, I’m sorry, something’s come up,” he says as he pulls his jacket back on.

“What is it? What’s happened?”

Magnus doesn’t try to hide the anxiety from his expression. “You remember that woman at Iris’s house, Leigh? She’s having her baby. Apparently, she can’t get hold of Catarina and, with Iris MIA—”

“We need to go,” finishes Alec for him, standing quickly as Magnus snaps his fingers for a portal.

Magnus frowns softly at him. “You don’t have to come.”

“As if I’m letting you go alone,” says Alec with a soft snort. “After what happened last time at that place?”

“Where are you guys off to?” a voice asks from the side and both glance to see Jace approaching. In all honesty, Magnus had almost forgotten he was here.

“To deliver a baby, I hope,” says Magnus concisely, stepping through the portal.

It is made apparent as he steps out that Alec had grabbed his arm and Jace had grabbed Alec’s, as both of them stumble gracelessly out behind him, Alec’s hand slackening on his sleeve. Magnus huffs his irritation, but says nothing to deter them.

“What the hell is this about a baby?” Jace asks, following Magnus as he enters the house.

“Leigh?” he calls, ignoring Jace’s question.

There is a pained scream from further into the house and Magnus hurries into a run, two shadowhunters at his back. Leigh is in the living room, sitting sideways on the coffee table and gripping the edge. Sweat beads her forehead, sheening her skin and catching the light when she turns her head to see the trio enter.

“Magnus,” she gasps in relief, her eyes turning to Alec when they rush to her and Magnus helps her to her feet. “Oh, I remember you,” says Leigh, smiling at Alec a little painfully as he supports her other side. “You were very nice. Such kind eyes… Madzie liked you—”

“Okay, alright,” Magnus soothes as she is cut off in a cry of anguish. “Alec, help me get her to the bedroom. Jace, send a fire message to Isabelle.”

“Why’d you need Izzy?”

“Because she is the most competent one of the lot of you, now send the message!”

Jace elects not to argue and Magnus and Alec guide Leigh into the adjacent bedroom. Magnus can feel Alec’s eyes on him, but it doesn’t matter. He’s allowed to be a little short of patience. He’s never done this before and he needs Catarina, but she isn’t here. The process of birthing a warlock is difficult at best and fatal at worst.

This woman’s life is in his hands, as well as the life of her unborn child.

* * *

Isabelle comes through a portal that Magnus whips up, Clary in tow behind her.

Magnus and Isabelle disappear into the bedroom and Alec tries not to feel offended that Magnus is favouring his sister over him. Deep down, he knows that childbirth is not something for random men with very flimsy connections to the woman to witness. Magnus is a warlock and Isabelle is a woman. They are what Leigh needs right now.

Still, it doesn’t stop him from pacing his way outside the door, glancing to it every so often as there is a flash of light from the low gap, a tell-tale blue of Magnus’s magic, a scream and cry of agony from the mother.

“By the Angel, Alec, sit down,” says Jace. “Anyone would think it was _your_ kid being born.”

Shooting him a glare, Alec continues to pace. He isn’t worried about the child—Magnus will make sure the baby is safe. _That_ is what worries him. Magnus will do whatever it takes to keep this child from harm, and Alec is anxious about him expending him powers too severely.

Magnus can’t have children; Alec knows that warlocks aren’t fertile. Maybe Alec is angry at Jace for insinuating that he can ever have a child when everyone knows how impossible that is. He isn’t straight and he isn’t in a relationship with a woman. He and Magnus will never conceive a baby together. Alec wants children, however. He has known he wants children ever since he _was_ a child.

For a moment, Alec considers other options for himself. He thinks about adoption. He wonders about having a child with _Magnus_ , about adopting a baby like the ones these women are forced to have, one who needs a home. He pushes the thought away almost ashamedly. It’s too early to be thinking of such things. Besides, Magnus clearly doesn’t want children. If he wanted children, Alec assumes he would have adopted already.

The glow beneath the door is constant now, gaining brightness by the second. There is a sound from the room, a pained cry that has Alec snapping his eyes to the door. Clary intercepts him when he tries to run to it.

“Easy,” she utters, seeming a little wary of ordering him. “He said not to go in. You have to listen to him; Magnus knows what he’s doing and Isabelle’s with him.”

Alec bites the inside of his cheek and nods stiffly, turning away from the door. Almost as soon as he does, it opens.

Isabelle walks out with Leigh at her side, supporting the no longer pregnant woman. Alec elects not to think about it too much; he knows warlock births are different to shadowhunters. Magnus leans halfway out the door, his eyes dark with exhaustion.

“Isabelle, you get her to lie down. Jace, get her some water. Clary, Alec, I need towels and warm water. Get it in bowls, saucepans, whatever you can find.”

Alec obeys unquestioningly, hurrying to the kitchen while Clary goes to the bathroom. He finds a mixing bowl, fills it to the brim with water from the hot tap and absently dips his fingers in to ensure it isn’t burning hot (Magnus _had_ said warm after all). He meets up with Clary and her armful of towels in the hallway and they go back to Magnus.

The warlock disappears into the room again and they are left standing uncertainly outside, turning to Leigh, whom Isabelle has lying half-propped up on the sofa, whose skin is tacky with sweat. Alec simply stands, a soft furrow on his brow. He doesn’t know what to do.

“My baby…” Leigh utters, trying to glance to the bedroom.

“It’s okay,” says Isabelle, holding her hand. “Magnus is just making sure she’s safe. I’m sure she’s okay.”

“Here,” Jace says hurriedly as he fast-walks back into the room, passing his sister a glass of water, watching anxiously as she helps Leigh to drink.

“Are you okay?” Clary asks gently, going to stand behind the sofa.

Leigh gasps as she finishes drinking, but nods quickly. “I’m okay,” she says. “Just tired. I want to see my baby. I have to know she’s safe.”

The bedroom door opens and all eyes turn to it. Magnus wanders out, a bundle of white blankets in his arms, some very non-human looking legs peeking out from underneath. There is such softness in his expression as he gazes down at the child in his arms. It is cooing softly, not quite crying.

Isabelle steps back, sinking into an armchair with a breath of relief. Alec knows that the furred legs ending in cloven hooves are the child’s warlock mark, but he had somehow been unprepared for it to show straight away. Maybe he had been expecting it to be something that developed over time.

It occurs to him then that he doesn’t know much about warlocks. He elects to learn.

Leigh watches with tearfully narrowed eyes, a breath of something like mixing relief and amusement exhaling from her lips as Magnus approaches with her baby.

“This is a warlock child,” Magnus explains gently as he lowers the baby into Leigh’s arms, readjusting the blanket over its legs. “Goat feet are… rather hard to hide. In time, she’ll be able to control a glamour so she can conceal them. It will come as naturally as walking and talking.”

Leigh gives a tearful smile, holding her daughter and staring down at her like she is the most precious thing in the world. Magnus tactfully steps back, absently holding his necklaces. Alec has come to take him fiddling with his jewellery as vulnerability. He purses his lips slightly, considering whether or not Magnus would want him right now.

His legs are moving him forward before he can decide. Alec sets a light hand to Magnus’s waist and he could swear the warlock leans into it a little. “You okay?” he utters and Magnus nods, casts him a small smile. “You did good.”

Magnus looks up at him, his eyes soft. “I’ve never done that before.”

“Well, you could’ve fooled me.”

His teasing makes Magnus smile, at least for a moment, but it fades as his eyes stay fixed on Leigh and her baby. Alec blinks hard as he realises that Magnus believes he never had that. According to the warlock, his mother was dismayed by his cat eyes, horrified that she had borne a demon’s child. Magnus probably imagines that his mother never looked at him like that, like he was precious and innocent.

Alec wishes he could tell him that she did, but he doesn’t know whether or not it would be a lie. All he knows is that Magnus doesn’t like to talk about his mother. He knows Magnus is convinced that he is responsible for her suicide. Alec isn’t sure, but he wasn’t there. He doesn’t try to tell the warlock otherwise.

“We should get back to the loft,” says Alec, absently tightening his hold on Magnus’s waist. “You look tired. Your magic—”

“I need to stay with Leigh,” Magnus says, glancing up to him. “I’m fine. I’m just a little tired… You can go back if you want—to the loft I mean. I’ve altered my wards to recognise you.”

Alec frowns softly. “Really?”

“You don’t have to. You can go back to the institute.”

“No, that’s not—” Alec begins, and decides not to get into how this feels like a massive step in their relationship, like it’s the warlock equivalent of giving Alec a key to his place. “I’ll stay here. I mean, if that’s okay. You can get some sleep. I can keep an eye on Leigh and wake you if there’s any problems.”

Magnus ducks his gaze a little. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” says Alec, giving Magnus a soft nod when the warlock glances back to his face.

“Then… thank you,” says Magnus, like he isn’t used to that kind of support. It breaks Alec’s heart a little that he is so grateful for such a simple offer.

The group don’t move. Clary is talking softly with Leigh. Jace hugs Isabelle, congratulates her on helping Magnus with the delivery. Alec just stands beside his boyfriend, an arm still around his lower back, a hand on his waist. Magnus seems content to stay with him.

They all just linger for a moment, bask in the rarity of such a pure, genuine moment. Alec watches Magnus more than he watches Leigh and her baby and knows in his heart that he wants this. He wants Magnus _and_ he wants kids. There’s no need for him to choose one or the other. When the time comes, they can talk about it.

For now, there is no rush. Here, with Magnus having just brought a new life into the world, Alec is content with being proud of him. Later that night, when the others have all left for the institute and Alec returns from checking on Leigh and her baby in the adjacent room to find Magnus asleep on the sofa, he doesn’t think twice about pulling a blanket up to the warlock’s shoulder. It is the most natural thing in the world.

They will talk about children one day. Alec will ask Magnus what he wants, and Magnus might even agree to Alec’s ideas of adoption. If he doesn’t, Alec won’t mind, because he is enough.

Right now, Magnus is everything Alec needs.


End file.
